Revised Pages The Resonance of Unseen Things Revised Pages Revised Pages The Resonance of Unseen Things Poetics, Power, Captivity, and UFOs in the American Uncanny Susan Lepselter University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor Revised Pages Copyright © by Susan Lepselter 2016 Published by the University of Michigan Press 2016 All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by the University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid- free paper 2019 2018 2017 2016 4 3 2 1 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Lepselter, Susan Claudia, author. Title: The resonance of unseen things : poetics, power, captivity, and UFOs in the American uncanny / Susan Lepselter. Description: Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015043812| ISBN 9780472072941 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780472052943 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780472121540 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Human-alien encounters. | Conspiracy theories?United States. Classification: LCC BF2050 .L47 2016 | DDC 001.942—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043812 Revised Pages Acknowledgments This book has morphed in and out of various emergent states for a very long time. It would be impossible to thank everyone who has deepened and expanded my thinking over the years—impossible both because I wish to keep confidential the names of multiple people to whom I am thankful for telling me their own stories, and also because so many people have influenced my ideas in ways too subtle and pervasive to describe. I offer my deepest gratitude to everyone who has talked with me about their own experiences, or shared with me any of the ideas that eventually took shape here. All weaknesses, omissions and errors in this book are my own. For their generous support of this research, I sincerely thank the Wenner- Gren Foundation, the Rhonda L. Andrews Memorial Award, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/Penn Humanities Forum. At the latter, I particularly thank Wendy Steiner for her support. I thank the anonymous readers for University of Michigan Press for their knowledgeable and perceptive comments. Also at University of Michigan Press, I was very lucky to work with Aaron McCollough. I thank him for his keen sensitivity to language in his illuminating edi- torial improvements, for his balance of patience and persistence, and for his nimble support at a critical moment. I am grateful to Elizabeth Frazier at the Press, both for her very sharp eyes and for her equally impressive patience. Thanks as well to Christopher Dreyer, Allison Peters, and to Thomas Dwyer for support at an earlier stage. I am deeply grateful to the professors whose teaching and scholar- ship early on modeled vivid ways to think about expressive culture. I am indescribably indebted to Katie Stewart for her intellectual exam- ple, support, and friendship over decades. Her luminous creativity as a thinker and writer of dazzlingly groundbreaking prose, and her singular capacity to evoke both the storied and unspoken elements of U.S. worlds have all been vital to me. I can’t overstate the impact of Greg Urban’s exuberant curiosity about the big questions of human culture and communication, and his rigorous attention to the smallest details of the same. Steven Feld taught his groundbreaking work on patterns Revised Pages of feeling and artfulness with simultaneous high theory and deep groove, along with his respect for and commitment to people, their art and their places. From my first encounters with Pauline Turner Strong, her anthropological perspective on the Indian captivity narrative and her innovative scholarship on this genre in America, was what first showed me that alien abduction was an iteration of this larger trope. I also deeply appreciate the input of time and energy, keen critical in- sight, and examples of brilliant scholarship by Robert Abzug, Ward Keeler, Ann Cvetkovich, and Joel Sherzer. A few forums’ focus on experimental, interdisciplinary work gave exceptional inspiration and provided meaningful critique for ideas in this book. I am grateful for the opportunity to have participated mul- tiple times in Ethnographic Dreamworlds at Buffalo State College; I thank its creator, Allen Shelton, both for inviting me, and for his beau- tiful autoethnographic and theoretical writing. I am similarly grateful to have discussed versions of my ideas at the engaging “Mini AAAs” and other interdisciplinary venues made possible by the generosity and generativity of Michael Taussig. I am so grateful for the radical play of experimental writing and ideas that developed in the Writing/Worlding faculty working group at the University of Chicago. I thank Lauren Berlant both for organizing this critical/social experiment, and for sharing the invigorating flights of her own critical ideas in both talk and in writing. I am grateful to the helpful responses from members of the Bard College Lecture Series on Nature and Culture, organized by Laura Kunreuther. Also, I thank the Workshop on U.S. Locations and American Cultures at University of Chicago for inviting me to work- shop a draft of what became the core of this book; the comments I re- ceived from the participants of the workshop were extremely helpful. I give special thanks to Joe Masco. What began with a spontaneous group trip to Nevada has led to many years of generative conversation into the most unexpected, endlessly interesting aspects of the uncanny and the real in America; his brilliant scholarship continuously inspires me. I am especially grateful to Debbora Battaglia, whose extraordinary work and imagination continuously offers me new perspectives. I am indescribably grateful to both Joe and Debbora for their too- generous support and encouragement, in many ways, at crucial times. Input from Jodi Dean was pivotal at an important moment. Years ago, Robin Sheriff’s insights into the sinister global dimension of alien abduction pushed my thinking in new directions. I thank Marilyn Ivy and John vi | Acknowledgments Revised Pages Pemberton for entangling friendship and intellectual inspiration on the uncanny that encouraged the inception of this work many years ago. Kathryn Lofton read the entire manuscript at an important mo- ment and offered vital feedback. I am so grateful to her for her time, energy, and insight. I am also deeply grateful for rich and cogent feed- back from Deborah Kapchan, Laura Kunreuther, Aaron Fox, Chris Roth, David Samuels, Louise Meintjes, Elana Zilberg, Erica David, Ben Feinberg, Calla Jacobson, Daniella Gandolfo, Deirdre de la Cruz, Susan Harding, Rosalind Morris, Yvette Christianse, David Valentine, Henry Goldschmidt, Ben Chesluk, and Heather Levi. I am so thankful for the support and rich intellectual stimulation of my colleagues and gradu- ate students in my departments of American Studies and Communica- tion and Culture, as well as in Folklore and Ethnomusicology and An- thropology, at Indiana University; here, I have received excellent editorial feedback from Ilana Gershon, Jane Goodman, Susan Seizer, Brenda Weber, Mary Gray, Sara Friedman, Michael Foster, Javier Leon, Diane Goldstein, Vivian Halloran, David Halloran, and Micol Seigel. Thanks as well to Aviva Goldstein, Claudia Heilbrunn, Alisa and Geoff Lepselter, Joan and Marty Lepselter, David Bleecker, Kate Neuman, Jenny Luray, Nancy Levene, Liz Rosdeitcher, Sandy Shapshay, and Karen Inouye for their support during this book’s journey. Special thanks and appreciation to SALF. There are many, many people who helped me on the ground in my research into stories, and while I do not have space to thank them all by name, I would like to express special gratitude to Bo, Hagar, Joe (G.), Rvanda, Elizabeth, Colin, Mary, Jeff, Dakota, Ellen, Monty, and Lisa, whose last names I omit in the interest of privacy. I owe enormous debts to Erma Jean Staffen and Stephen Miles Lewis, both of whose friendship, intellectual energy, and passion for big questions shaped my own thinking from the beginnings of my interest in this subject decades ago. Also in Texas, Audrey Meyer taught me, over years of in- spiring friendship, about the power of prophecy and dreaming. In Ne- vada, people’s incredible generosity and hospitality far exceeded my expectations. I am deeply grateful for the various ways that people helped me, took me to see their beautiful places, and shared their homes, their humor, and their stories. Again, it is impossible to name everyone. But I would like to express special gratitude to those who often took me into their homes or drove me around to see the land, especially Pat Travis and the late Joe Travis for their exceptional help; Acknowledgments | vii Revised Pages Don Day; and Kaye and Jim Medlin for their generosity and Jim’s time and skills as a guide. I am similarly thankful for the generous contribu- tions of Jim and Mary Greenen, Jeanette Tholt, and to the late Arthur and La Rae Fletcher and Dolphina. I owe an enormous debt to the en- tire Nickell family for kindly showing me glorious parts of Nevada I would never have been able to know. I am also extremely grateful to help given by many other people both living and now passed on. Spe- cifically I thank Carol Carter, Fay Day, Ann Morgan and Isaac Lopez, Dewayne Davis, Jack and Don Emery, Chuck Clark; the staff and regu- lar patrons of the Little A’Le’Inn (especially Dee); and to the many other people who shared their stories with me. I have changed names, as well as many details, in these stories to protect privacy; neverthe- less, I hope the feeling, rhythms, and themes still feel correct to the tellers.